Against All Odds
by CWRT2900
Summary: "Tell, tell Grace that..." "Hey I don't want none of that. You'll tell her yourself." "I'm not going to make it, pal."


_**A short revamp of episode 4.19 which was quite good actually. I liked it a whole lot better than many of the other episodes. However I only have two small grievances:**_

_**First, the damn technology nowadays. Humans don't use their brains anymore. They press a button and the techno gadgets do it for them. Some will say: the technology can save lives. True but it doesn't make for good drama. It's too easy. We're like monkeys programmed to hit the right buttons. I was glad when Steve's cell didn't work and should have stayed that way throughout the episode. It would have added an extra touch of drama. **_

_**Second, a five, six-story building falls on them and they were able to walk way from the debris on their own two feet? Granted that can happen it some cases, but that took away another big chunk of drama. And what about the oxygen running low down there? We didn't see them struggling to breathe long enough that already they were rescued. Granted Danny was hurt but that didn't last long and Steve barely had a scratch on him.  
**_

_**This story focuses inside the building after it collapsed. It's just whump and bromance. This is my take so I added a few scenes and revamped existing others. I didn't follow the script. I sent Amber and Catherine away to keep it just the Ohana.  
**_

_**And to Danny I say: Don't ever change, boy! We like you messed up. That's part of your charm.**_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H50~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

The dust had barely settled when Steve groaned his way back to consciousness. He coughed out the dust stuck down throat, which caused him to wince at the stinging sensation down in his stomach. He painfully lifted his arm to bring it to rest on the sore area where he felt a sticky substance underneath his fingers. He raised his throbbing head long enough to peek down at his abdomen.

"Ah great!" he muttered and slowly leaned his head back against the concrete slab underneath. He coughed out a dust ball that scorched his lungs and to his horror, the mucus was mixed with steaks of blood.

"Come on McGarrett," he egged himself on. "Can't dwell on it." He carefully stretched out his arms, and then wiggled his toes and slowly bent his legs at the knees. The limbs appeared fairly intact. He then took stock of other possible injuries. Aside from a few angry bruises fuelled by the cement dust, a stinging soreness all over his body and a head that felt like a thousand sledgehammers were pounding inside, the injuries were minimal.

As he tried to hoist himself up, he was seized with a sudden spell of dizziness that compelled him to remain seated. With eyes tightly shut and a clenched jaw he attempted to breathe away the queasiness through his set teeth.

Once it passed and the aches and pain dwindled a notch, he painfully lifted himself off the ground and staggered to his feet.

"Danny!" His shouting triggered a coughing bout but he refused to allow this setback to debilitate him. He gulped in a deep breath, hissing at the pain it triggered and continued his search for his partner.

"Danny! Come on buddy, answer me." He strode over the debris strewn all around him. Each step was agony as his stomach wound protested at the treatment it received, but the stubborn man refused to yield. With a hand across his belly he laboriously moved on in a desperate search for his partner.

"Danny, where are you? Come on, answer me." He stopped and leaned against a pillar to catch his breath before dragging himself further up the hole he was buried in. "Danny!" he called out in a whimper, as the realization that Danny might not have survived the blast hit him.

He reached down in his cargo pants pocket to retrieve his cell phone. He checked it over and tried to activate it. Despair gripped him when the screen showed a 'no signal' message. "Great!" he heaved out in frustration, causing him to cough.

"Danny," he continued to summon his partner. Steve was losing hope of finding Danny alive when a faint moan caught his attention. "Danny?" he called out with a renewed optimism. "Danny, where are you, buddy?"

Steve frantically searched the premises with no sign of his partner. "Danny? I'm coming. Give me a sign. Where are you?" Suddenly a weak hand stuck out from underneath heavy concrete chunks.

"Here," hailed the quavering ghostly voice, but it was loud enough for Steve to locate him.

"Danny, thank God you're still with me, man." Steve reached out to grab Danny's hand.

"Guess I am," Danny snorted out with a nervous laugh, squeezing his partner's hand as though it was a lifeline. "What happened?"

"There was a bomb. The whole building collapsed on us," Steve explained as he began assessing the situation.

"What...what about the others?"

"I don't know. I think they were in the clear when the blast occurred."

Danny yelped at Steve's ministrations. "Oh, that's not good."

"Where does it hurt?"

"My side. It's burning like hell."

Steve began removing the hindering debris around his partner before gently lifting the larger stone resting on his stomach. Horror struck him upon noticing the steel bar embedded in Danny's flesh. "You've got a steel rod sticking out. From the angle I say it missed any vital organ. I'm going to have to remove it."

"Maybe, maybe it'd be better to just leave it there to avoid my bleeding to death," Danny suggested with a hint of humour.

"No can do, buddy. It has to come out or the wound will get infected pretty quickly and sepsis will set in."

"All right," Danny relented but some qualms lingered about the process. "My leg. I can't move it."

"Yeah, it's wedged in between two slabs. I'm going to have to remove them but I need leverage. Too heavy to lift with my bare hands." As Steve went to release his grip on Danny's hand, the blond held it tighter. "Don't, not a good idea to leave me alone seeing how we're in a tight space and all."

"Oh yeah, your claustrophia."

"Right," Danny gulped in, his breathing increasing at the thought.

"Danny, listen to me. Breathe deeply and slowly. Close your eyes if you have to. I'm right here with you," Steve assured breathlessly with a squeeze on Danny hand. "I won't go far. Just need to find...to find a rod to lift the block off you." He waited for Danny to nod in acknowledgment before he settled to the task at hand. Luckily he found the tool and quickly set to work at removing the hindering object.

Danny painfully rolled away from underneath the slab and rested on his side. As he risked a glimpse at his wound he noticed that Steve was struggling to breathe.

"Hey, Steve? You alright?" when Steve failed to answer, Danny turned on his back and stared at his partner he could hear heaving heavily. His concern grew at the retching sound that followed. He tried to move closer but his wound wouldn't allow it. He gasped at the dark matter that was expelled from his lungs.

"You're hurt too and don't tell me you're good," Danny chided before his partner could lie. "That was blood, wasn't it?"

Steve quickly dismissed the incident with a quick swipe of his hand to wipe his mouth dry. "I'll be alright."

"Liar!"

"Yeah, well, I can't dwell on it, buddy. We need to find a way out of here before we run out of oxygen. Already it's getting stuffy in here."

"I wonder if they know we're down here."

"I'm sure they do. They may not have our exact location though. There's no signal on my cell so I can't call out."

"Swell!"

"Alright now. I need to pull this rod out. I won't lie to you it's going to hurt like hell."

Steve ripped a strip of his shirt and braced himself to remove the steel rod from Danny's flesh. He grabbed a hold of it and yanked it out, sending his partner in the throes of agony. Quickly he pressed down on the wound with the makeshift bandage.

"This will have to do for now. I don't have any peroxide with me to disinfect the wound. I just hope we get out of here before infection sets in. Here," he took Danny's hand and held it against the balled up strip of material. "Hold it against the hole to stop the bleeding."

"Thanks." Danny's eyes travelled down to Steve's bloody shirt. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

Danny motioned to the blood-soaked spot on Steve's abdomen. "You're bleeding too."

Steve looked down at his stomach and rolled up his shirt to get a better look. "It stopped bleeding," he surmised from the scab forming.

"Uh huh." Danny wasn't so easily fooled. His suspicions were founded when Steve began to sway. "Hey! You'd better sit down and take it easy for awhile."

"Can't. We need to keep moving." He stood and held out his hand to give Danny a hoist up. He held him steady while the blond gained his balance. "You okay?"

"Not really but as you said, we need to find a way out of here."

"Alright."

The two friends began their painful journey through the mountain of rubble, coughing and hissing as they trudged along, looking to find a light at the end of the tunnel. Following a gruelling fifteen minutes of fruitless search, they slid to the ground side by side to catch their breath.

Steve reached for a steel rod.

"Souvenir?" Danny ribbed.

"If you want but first I'll just use it to bang on the beams. The sound might be heard up there."

"Wanna bet?"

"Right now it's all we've got to go on." Steve hauled himself off the ground, cringing at the scorching hot pain in his side. He attempted to breathe it away to conceal his discomfort from his partner. Once up he held the bar firmly in his hand and repeatedly banged it on the beam.

Danny's angry wound and dizziness made him forfeit the will to join in and resigned himself to remaining down on the ground. Instead he grabbed a nearby block of concrete and mimicked his partner.

Nearly ten minutes later, Steve's pace began to slacken.

"Take a break, Steve," Danny suggested from the look of sheer exhaustion etched on his partner's face. His own arm fell limply to his side with the rock sliding from his grasp. His heavy head lolled from side to side, before it bobbed forward where it rested on his chin.

"Danny!" Steve breathed out heavily. "Stay with me now. No sleeping on the job, you hear?" His attempted at humor failed to reach his audience as Danny remained unresponsive. Steve slapped him on the cheeks. "Danny, come on. Can't leave me alone here."

"Let me rest for a bit," came the whispering whimper.

"I will if you promise not to fall asleep."

Danny nodded but his body language told another story.

"Danny, come on!" Steve urged with a shake on Danny's shoulder to rouse him. He ran a hand against Danny's forehead and winced at the clammy skin and unusual warmth. "Oh no," he mumbled woefully, knowing that infection was beginning to set in.

"It's bad I can feel it," Danny croaked out, gulping in a breath that exacerbated his wound.

"Just hold on a while longer. We'll get out of here." Steve's breathing was growing ragged and more labored.

"Always the optimist," Danny quipped, his leaden eyes slowly closing.

The sound of twisting metal above prompted them both to look up, fear evident in their glazed eyes at the sudden realization that the unstable structure was about to cave in on them.

Seconds later, part of the roof collapsed and buried them under another layer of rubble.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H50~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Sometime later, a moan followed by a guttural groan was heard wafting from underneath a pile of debris and a thick layer of cement dust.

Steve managed to extract himself from the hindering blocks, but the effort it took quickly sapped his strength and he remained lying on his side with his eyes closed and nostrils flaring from the crucial lack of oxygen that the new load of dirt denied our two friends. He tried to suck in air through his mouth but the dust made him regret that move and he ended up hacking his lungs out.

The coughing fit managed to rouse Danny. His eyes fluttered open and slowly, he tilted his head to the side to witness his partner coughing out blood.

"Guess thi...this is the end...end of the road for us," Danny conceded in a feeble voice.

"They'll find us," Steve wheezed out.

Danny shook his head in disbelief at his partner's misplaced confidence. The air was now growing thicker and heavier to breathe for both.

Steve crawled on all four over to Danny who was lying supine with both legs trapped underneath a large concrete slab. Exhausted he dropped to the ground on his stomach, too worn out to even yelp in pain. He grabbed Danny's hand and squeezed it tight. "Hang on. There's still hope."

"Steve do...do me a favour, will you?"

"What's that, brah?"

"Tell...tell Grace that..."

"Hey I don't want none of that. You'll...you'll tell her yourself."

"I'm not going to make it, pal," Danny snivelled.

"If you don't get out of here alive, chanc...chances are I won't either. They find me, they find you."

"Cra...crazy Neanderthal animal."

Steve chuckled which prompted another coughing bout.

Steve thought of concocting a makeshift explosive device to try to blow their way out but given the unsteady structure and the fact that they had no idea where they were, he couldn't risk it. Danny gave Steve's hand a light squeeze and a faint smile danced on his lips before his head lolled to the side. Despite Steve's best effort to rouse him, he remained still.

Steve released his partner's hand and instead, draped his arm across his body and rested his head on his chest. He was relieved to feel a heartbeat but it was fleeting at best and he knew that it would be a matter of minutes before it stopped completely. Tears sprang from his eyes at the inevitable fate that awaited them.

"Love you too, Dannnnnno," Steve said with his last gasping breath before he was lost to the world.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H50~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

It was only moments later that movement from above was finally heard but neither Steve and Danny stirred. One rescue worker was lowered down a few yards away. "It's a mess down here," he reported to the crew above.

"Grimm, do you see them?" Grover asked anxiously.

"Not yet."

"We're sending Halden down."

Minutes later, the second rescue worker touched ground and removed his harness. Together they searched for the missing partners.

"Are you sure that's where you heard the noise?" Grimm asked Grover.

"Yeah. But with the second collapse they might be buried deeper."

"Hey Alan, look over there!" Halden pointed to the two dust-covered inert forms barely visible in the heap of rubble.

"Captain, we found them!"

Grover heaved a sigh of relief but his elation was fleeting as he dreaded the answer to his next question. "Are they alive?" Anguish grew as seconds elapsed.

"We have pulses but they are not breathing."

By that time Kono and Chin had returned to the site of the explosion to hear the shocking news.

The medics settled to work at inserting IV lines into Steve's and Danny's arms and began pumping air into their lungs with Ambu bags.

"Can you haul them out in the harness?" Grover asked, hoping they wouldn't need to resort to having to dig a wider hole to winch the injured up in a basket.

"I'll tell you in a minute," Alan said as he and his partner began assessing the two men's conditions.

A few excruciating minutes later, the verdict was out. They would be able to haul Steve and Danny out one by one, but this method was not without its risks. They needed to proceed cautiously in order to keep the movement to a bare minimum to avoid worsening the injuries.

Oxygen masks were placed on both men's faces. As the two medics began securing the insentient Steve to the harness, Halden's finger went to the jugular once more. "Dammit, there's no pulse."

"No time for CPR," Grimm said, reaching for his radio transmitter. "Captain, we're ready to haul the first one out. Tell our guys to get the portable defibrillator ready. He's in cardiac arrest."

Kono volunteered to relay the message to the paramedics while Grover and Chin stayed behind and anxiously waited for the cable to winch Steve up.

Pair of hands clawed at Steve's limp form and gently laid him down on a stretcher. In a bat of an eye, a medic was on him performing cardiac massage while waiting for the defibrillator to charge up.

Minutes later Danny appeared out of the hole and quickly, gentle hands grabbed a hold of him and set him down on a stretcher. Medics swarmed around him to check his vitals and with an Ambu bag, they resumed pumping oxygen into his lungs.

Seconds later their efforts were rewarded with a hacking cough.

"Danny! Danny can you hear me?" Chin asked frantically. "Come on Danny, answer me. Open your eyes, brah," he coached and sighed in relief when he saw the flicker of eyelids. "That's it, come on."

"How is he?" Kono asked.

"He's waking up."

Both cousins continued their coaxing until Danny's glazed eyes opened wider.

"We'rrrrre out?" Danny mumbled weakly.

"Yes you are," Kono informed happily.

Danny coughed out a few more dust balls before his eyes bulged out in panic. "Steve?"

Chin motioned to his right. "They're trying to revive him," he said forlornly.

Danny tried to lift his head off the pillow but his efforts were thwarted by a pair of strong hands. "What are you doing? You stay down." Chin ordered firmly.

"Steve. I need," he gulped, "I need to go to him."

"He's being taken care of. Besides they need room to work."

"Please Chin, take me to him," Danny pleaded with tears pooling in his eyes.

Chin glanced at Kono who nodded her consent. They advised the paramedics to wheel Danny next to Steve's stretcher.

Between two shocks, Danny held Steve's hand. "Babe, come on. Don't give up now. We're out. We're saved. Come on! Stay with me."

It wasn't long before Danny's own body forfeited the fight and he slumped into unconsciousness.

The paramedics rushed their patients to the two awaiting ambulances, and no sooner had they loaded them up that they were whisking off to Queen's Medical Center.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H50~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Early next morning, Kono drove to the hospital and found Chin sitting by Danny's bed. "Any news?"

Chin shook his head. "They haven't stirred. Danny's fever's down a bit. The medication is obviously working. Steve's still hovering at 101."

"Here." She handed him a cup of steamy hot coffee along with a bag containing malasadas. "I brought you breakfast."

"Thanks."

"You go and get some sleep. I'll stay with them."

The two cousins exchanged a warm hug before Chin dragged his weary-worn frame out of the room.

Kono took a seat by the blond's bed and wickedly dangled a malasada underneath his nose hoping the scent would trigger a reaction. To her heart's content, Danny's nose twitched at the aroma and two blue eyes peered through a slit. "Good morning," she greeted.

Glazed eyes blinked repeatedly to adjust focus. He licked his lips and swallowed hard, trying to wet down his parched throat.

"Want some water?" Danny nodded and she obliged. "How are you feeling?"

"Kinda numb," he mumbled sleepily. "Guessssss I'm on the good stuffffff, huh?"

"The best."

Seconds passed before Danny's muddled brain recalled. "Steve?"

"Look to your right." Danny slowly swivelled his head to see his partner sleeping in the next bed. "How is he?"

"Paramedics managed to bring him back in the ambulance but now the doctors are concerned about brain damage. They don't know how long his brain was denied oxygen down there."

Danny lazily flung the covers aside and tried to swing his legs over the edge of the bed. "What are you doing?"

"I wanna...wanna go to him," he said breathlessly.

"Danny you can see him from here. He's resting."

"Please Kono. Take me to him."

She reluctantly agreed to assist him into a wheelchair that she pushed all the way to Steve's bed.

Danny clasped his hand and leaned forward. "Hey you, you Neanderthal animal. Time to wake up."

Seconds passed without a single flinch.

"Kono, help me up, will you?"

"Danny!" Kono objected.

"Please," Danny insisted and again she obliged by assisting him to his wobbly legs. She held him by the waist to steady him as he leaned closer to Steve's face. Danny's constant coaxing was rewarded with a small tug on his hand. "That's it, come on. Rise and shine, sleepy head."

Eyelids fluttered open and bleary eyes remained open at half-mast. "Welcome back," Danny cheered with a nervous laugh, wiping an errant tear of joy pearling down his cheek. "We're out! You're gonna be fine."

"Wha...what happened?" Steve asked in a whispering breath.

"Don't you remember? We were caught in an explosion. We were trapped underground." The lack of acknowledgement worried him. He leaned closer and squeezed Steve's hand. "Babe, what's my name?"

"Wanna sleep," he said. Then seconds later he uttered the name that put the blond's fears to rest, "Danny."

Danny's tears sprang from his eyes at the obvious lack of brain damage. He planted a big kiss on Steve's forehead. "I love you, you big goof."

"Lovvvvve you tooooooo," Steve murmured out before drifting off to sleep.

_**A huge thank you to the H50 fans who favorited my other short story 'So Long, It's Been A Blast, Kiddo." I hope you liked this one as well.  
**_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**The End**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_


End file.
